Video AI - Framerate issues

Topaz Products Product Technical Support
1

I’m experiencing some issues with framerates using Video AI.

Source video is 720x480 @ 29.97. When running this through Video AI and producing an MP4, the Video runs too fast and the motion looks awkward.

As a test, I ran the first part of a video (~18,000 frames) through Video AI and saved to PNG. I then extracted all the frames from the video using FFPMEG. Video AI says the video has 163,304 frames which matches what FFMPEG produces.

After comparing frames from FFMPEG and VideoAI, the ones from Video AI are definitely further into the video at the same frame.

I’m not sure whats going on, but I do have a hunch. While extracting the frames with FFMPEG, I see warnings that frames were duplicated… quite a few in fact.

    Stream #0:0(eng): Video: png, rgb24, 720x480 [SAR 8:9 DAR 4:3], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbn, 29.97 tbc
    Metadata:
      BPS-eng         : 5280114
      DURATION-eng    : 01:30:48.910133333
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 131431
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 3596358264
      SOURCE_ID-eng   : 0100E0
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: MakeMKV v1.15.0 win(x64-release)
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2020-03-08 14:18:08
      _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES SOURCE_ID
      encoder         : Lavc58.68.102 png
**More than 1000 frames duplicated**N/A time=00:03:12.59 bitrate=N/A **dup=997** drop=0 speed=1.72x
frame= 8103 fps= 52 q=-0.0 size=N/A time=00:04:30.10 bitrate=N/A **dup=1457** drop=0 speed=1.75x

I wonder if Video AI is dropping these frames?

2

Please raise a support request at the Topaz Labs website.

3

Thanks Don, I’ve already done that… I was hoping to just get some support from the community as I’m assuming it’s going to be a while before I hear from them.

1 Like
4

Is your video interlaced? I observed the same issue only on interlaced video. The solution at this time is to de-interlace prior to running video through Video AI.

2 Likes
5

I don’t think it’s interlaced, but I’ll run a “quick” deinterlace on it and see if that makes a difference… thanks for the recomendation!

6

My friend, I owe you a beer. I spent way more time than I’d like to admit trying to fix this problem. I have only done about a minute of video, but everything seems to be in sync. I’m pretty sure you fixed my problem.

Hopefully this will help someone else out in the future… it might even be worth adding to the faq regarding Video AI and Interlaced Video…

Anyway – thank you so much! I was 99% sure the video wasn’t interlaced before your suggestion, and I was soooooooo wrong!

7

No problem. Glad it helped.

8

For anyone else experiencing this issue, our FAQ’s as well as product page do say that video needs to be de-interlaced first before using Video Enhance AI.
You can read more at the link below:

9

@emily.dworkin I don’t disagree with you at all. I read that FAQ a dozen times, probably more! I could be wrong, but I’m not aware of any good way to really tell if a video is interlaced. Usually I don’t have a problem seeing the jaggies around the edges of fast moving objects… and all the other signs of interlaced video. I just didn’t catch that my video was interlaced!

The FAQ makes it sound like it just won’t work, or maybe it’ll throw an error telling me it won’t work…

Can I process interlaced Video?

Not directly. If your video is interlaced, please deinterlace it first before using Video Enhance AI to upscaling it. We are working on a deinterlacer AI at this moment, stay tuned.

Might be worth updating the FAQ to explain the symptom of processing interlaced video. Might save someone else a weekend!

10

I know this is old but I came across it. If you use VLC you have to turn deinterlace off, then zoom in while it’s playing and you should be able to see the lines clear as day.